What! You want another review of one of those high-toned winners of the Pulitzer or Booker Prize or the Caldecott Medal? I haven’t reviewed enough of those for you? Have you forgotten that call girls, too, have an honored place in literature?

No, I’m not talking about the memoirs of the Mayflower Madam. I’m talking about Holly Golightly, a call girl in Truman Capote’s novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s (though you wouldn’t know it from the movie we all love, anyway). So within the next week I’m reviewing The Scorpion’s Sweet Venom: The Diary of a Brazilian Call Girl (Bloomsbury, $14.95), just out in paperback. This memoir grew out of the online diary of former teenage prostitute Rachel Pacheco, who used the stage name of Bruna Surfistinha (“Bruna the Surfer Girl”). The publisher calls this book “an international sensation” by “the Paris Hilton of Brazil.” (Now there’s a recommendation! What will the publishing industry give us next, the memoirs of the Lindsay Lohan of Uruguay?) I believe I have a duty to review this book because when you actually go to Bruna’s famous blog and try to see what the fuss is all about … it’s in Portuguese! I ask you: What good does that do American teenage boys? So check back if you can’t live without knowing more about this one. And — who knows? — if the publishing industry does give us the memoirs of the Lindsay Lohan of Uruguay, I might review that, too, if I decide that you and I need a break from all those prize-winning authors like Ian McEwanwww.oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/08/10/.

(c) 2007 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.

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Thanks, Rain. “The Scorpion’s Sweet Venom” got a lot of attention (from respected publications like the New York Times) when it first appeared here. But its ranking on Amazon (in the 200,000s) suggests that it’s far from a bestseller in this country. I wonder if it’s doing better overseas?
Jan